


Monsters Nearby

by whalehuntingboyfriends



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Break Up and Make Up, minecraft au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 12:11:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10899093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whalehuntingboyfriends/pseuds/whalehuntingboyfriends
Summary: Night’s falling, bringing all the dangers of their world with it. After a big argument leaves them lost in the wilderness, bitter and broken up, Geoff and Gavin have some choices to make.(prompt: 3 times they fucked up and the 1 time they didn’t, with a mild sense of enemies to lovers.)





	Monsters Nearby

**Author's Note:**

> For love-geofffree - thank you so much for all your support! <3

**i. lost**

Even after everything, the break-up comes as a slam-dunk shock. Like a cave-in, like “Don’t you get sick of being scared of everything” and “You’re going to get us both killed” and “Maybe you should just go by yourself, then” are falling in around them like stones, making the mineshaft claustrophobic. Geoff’s used to the underground, its dark womb warmth and buried treasures. He’s used to Gavin trailing after him like a second shadow, green eyes glowing in the mine’s dark.

He’s not used to this.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

The words echo through the tunnel. Just the two of them, miles below the earth. Just the two of them.

“I don’t know,” Gavin replies, and swallows. His eyes are rimmed red. “I think I am.”

“Three years and-”

“And we’ve been fighting about this for days. You just won’t bloody give it up-”

“It’s my fucking _dream_ , okay-”

“And it’s _my_ damn nightmare!” Gavin snaps. And then, tightly, “You called me a _snivelling creeper cunt-”_

“You called _me_ an _arrogant asshole-”_

“ _Why don’t you just blow up?”_

“ _Why don’t_ you _just_ leave?” Geoff mocks right back, accent and all, and Gavin throws his hands up, spins away.

“Why _don’t_ you?” he says, tiredly. “You know what, Geoff, I guess I am breaking up with you.”

Geoff swallows. He’s all hot outside and all cold inside and in that moment he _hates_ Gavin, hates everything, and the thought of turning and walking and walking and leaving him behind here beneath the clay seems to make all the sense in the world.

But Gavin follows him, of course. He always does.

-

That’s not even when things _really_ go wrong.

Things really go wrong when they both march, fuming and silent and _distracted_ back to the surface only to realise that the hole they came out of is not the same one they went in, and now they’re surrounded by unfamiliar mountains and forest and Geoff may or may not have no fucking clue where they are.

“Where are we?” Gavin demands, because of _course_ it’s Geoff’s fault, not like Gavin made any fucking contribution or pointed out they were going the wrong way.

“Hell if I know.”

“You got us lost!” There’s an accusing note in his voice that makes Geoff bristle. He rounds on Gavin, furiously.

“No, I got _myself_ lost. There’s no fucking _us_ anymore, Gavin. Thought you wanted that. You chose to follow me out here.”

Gavin’s jaw clenches tight. He yanks his hood up over his head, casting his eyes into shadow, his cloak falling around him until he really does look like nothing but a creeper. It’s unsettling, reminds Geoff of back at the beginning when the boy was silent, only hissing occasionally, green eyes peering out at Geoff with a look in them that made it abundantly clear he did not trust him in the slightest. It took Gavin two months to even properly show his face.

Geoff stares back at the mineshaft, a gaping dark path back into the earth. Then at the sky, dimly streaked orange. It’s nearly night. When the monsters come out - and he’d rather be lost on the surface than lost in the dark tunnels of the underworld.

He thinks he knows which way to go, and turns to Gavin only to catch himself.

_No us anymore. You’re on your own here._

Biting his tongue, he spins on his heel and heads off, dragging his pickaxe behind him. After a moment he hears Gavin’s soft footsteps.

_So he’s gonna follow you, then. Typical. Can’t fucking think for himself. He’d follow you anywhere._

_Except to your dream. Except to where you want him the most._

It makes the anger rise up again, and he pointedly doesn’t turn to look at the other man, even as they head deeper into the trees and he realises he really doesn’t know where he’s going, but the shadows of the branches make pretty patterns that draw him further into the dark, and the unknown doesn’t have to be scary, and he’ll make it work like he always does, and if Gavin doesn’t trust him that’s his problem. Geoff trusts _himself_ and he knows he always find home somehow.

-

“The sun’s setting,” Gavin says abruptly.

“So the creeper speaks!” Geoff can’t help exclaiming, mockingly.

“Do you even know where we are?”

They pause. Gavin’s right; the last dregs of sunlight are slipping away and within a half hour it will be completely dark. They have torches - but despite himself, the thought of spending the night out here amidst the trees, as monsters emerge from the shadows, makes Geoff’s heart pound and a shiver run down his spine. Their world is a dark place and with night comes nightmares, and it’s been a long, long time since he was out exposed as the moon rises. Usually they get back to the village in time, or hole up in a cabin or cave.

“We’re close,” he replies finally.

“To _what_?”

“I don’t know, to _something_ \- I headed back in the direction of the village-”

“I don’t think you _did_ , Geoffrey!” There’s a rising panic in Gavin’s voice and for a moment, for a moment Geoff softens. He can’t see Gavin’s face, just the dark outline of his jaw under the shadow of his hood, but he can hear how scared he is, and it makes him think of a night long ago. Of a green shadow pressed into the hollow of a tree, then Geoff pressed against _him_ in turn, a warm body against his as the two of them waited, breathless in the dark as the great thudding steps of an Enderman passed them by.

Part of him wants to tell Gavin not to be scared. That things will be okay like they always are, that he just needs to _trust_ Geoff-

_But he doesn’t, he doesn’t trust you. Clearly, even after all this time, and that_ hurts-

And it’s easier to be angry than admit that. To latch onto how accusing Gavin sounds and let that fuel his annoyance.

“We’re not lost,” he snaps. “We’re just… far from home.”

There’s a long silence. Gavin’s chest is heaving. _Home,_ Geoff thinks. Home is the two of them and the village and fighting beasts together and mining and building and ending each night curled up in front of the fire, safe even if zombies batter on the village walls. Home is knowing Gavin isn’t scared, not when Geoff’s arms are around him and his face is tucked into the crook of Geoff’s neck. Home is how it feels to be kissed, to feel Gavin’s sharp teeth clash against his and his warm, lithe body press to Geoff’s and seem to fill every empty space.

“If we’d just stayed back near the mines,” Gavin mutters, finally, “We could’ve figured out what direction to go in. But you just went _stomping off_ into the-”

“Well you _stomped_ right off after me, didn’t you? Bitch,” Geoff adds, childishly, and Gavin tosses his head angrily. There’s another tense pause - then Geoff whirls on his heel and keeps walking away.

It’s not the right direction. He doesn’t know that - or if he does, maybe he doesn’t care - but what he cares is that Gavin keeps following him, even if his instincts are probably screaming that Geoff’s going the wrong way. That means something, Geoff tells himself. 

 

* * *

 

**ii. risk**

Darkness. In their world it means death - it means spiders swarming from holes spontaneously opened in the earth, and the loping strides of Endermen as they stalk the night, and silent creepers lurking in the shadows.

In the torchlight, Geoff is afraid. They’re deep in the forest now, and his every hair stands on end. _Inside, inside, inside_ , all his instincts scream. Into the light where they can’t get you. You can sleep the night away and the sunlight will wash the land clean and in the new day, you can continue to work. To _live._

But they can’t sleep now. They stand in the middle of the tangled forest. Every direction looks the same, and before the shapes of the trees had something hypnotic and inviting to them, but now they just remind Geoff of grasping arms.

Gavin’s standing close to him. It’s just because of the torchlight - they both want to be as near that as possible. But he’s scared - Geoff can see him shaking.

“There was a cave back there,” Gavin says now. Geoff’s paused for the tenth time to try and figure out where they are. “We should go back and hide in it until morning.”

“You want to go into a cave at night? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“It’s inside,” Gavin argues. “It might be safer than being out here.”

“Or it could be full of monsters.”

“These bloody woods are full of monsters!” Gavin snaps. “I heard skeletons nearby before.”

He gives a full body shudder, and for a flash of a moment Geoff thinks of the scars that trace intricate patterns over Gavin’s skin under his cloak, and how he used to flinch at everything when they first met. Thinks of the battle wounds that his own tattoos cover up.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he says, reluctantly. “It could be more dangerous in there. If we keep going we might find a village.”

He starts to walk again, but for the first time, Gavin lingers instead of following. Geoff stops after a few paces and turns, looking over his shoulder.

“If you want to go back, you go back,” he says.

Gavin’s looking at the ground.

“It’s safer together,” he says, grudgingly.

“Yes,” Geoff spits. “It is.”

Gavin’s jaw clenches. He turns and starts walking back to the cave. After a moment’s hesitation, this time Geoff is the one who follows. Because he’s scared too, and he doesn’t want to be alone.

-

The cave is damp, and dark. With every breath Geoff feels like weird mould spores are getting sucked into his lungs. Outside, the pale light of the moon makes every shadow seem looming and ominous. A bird flying overhead becomes some arcane beast, the skeletons moving past in the undergrowth look like giants. Inside, a sloping cavern leads into nothing but pitch blackness. Like fuck Geoff’s going down there.

They huddle around the torch close to the entranceway. Geoff hates the silence. Usually the two of them would be able to reassure each other, or lie together for warmth.

He keeps forgetting that Gavin’s broken up with him - keeps forgetting that’s all gone, now.

The other man is sulking, his head ducked low. They haven’t eaten all day, and Geoff aches from the mining. He still has his heavy bag of materials beside him. They were going to build a redstone track leading over the hills around the village. A quick route down to the beach. Gavin kept calling it a rollercoaster, even when Geoff said it was just for transport and no, there was no way they could feasibly make it have a loop-de-loop.

Now he thinks of what it’s gonna be like when he’s gone, left to build alone in the wilderness. Gavin will be safe back in the village, but alone. Continuing the daily grind of mining for emeralds, trading them for food. Scared to go anywhere too far from base because of the monsters.

It’s no life. It’s everything Geoff’s been trying to leave behind for a long time.

“What are you gonna do?” he blurts out, breaking the silence. 

Gavin jumps, and looks up. His hood falls back, just enough that Geoff can see his green eyes, dull and tired now. He’s still not quite sure what Gavin is. He’s not human, that’s for sure, because he’s hiding a fucking tail under all those robes. Not one of the doddering villagers who speak some babbling tongue that Geoff’s never been able to pick up. But he’s not a monster - not like the other things out there - not even if some people call him one.

“What do you mean?” Gavin asks.

“When I’m gone-” God, those words are hard not to choke on - “What will you do? How will you survive out there if the monsters come?”

Gavin stiffens, like he hadn’t even thought about it.

“Same way I did before meeting you, you twat,” he says, but his voice is tight and nervous.

“What,” Geoff fires back, “By pretending to be one of them?”

Gavin freezes. For a moment he looks hurt, but he seems to force it away behind a blank coldness.

“It’s how I survive,” he says. “Innit.”

Geoff bites his lip. He feels a bit bad, remembering suddenly a winter night, and the two of them curled up in bed, and Gavin finally telling him about the massacre of his people at the hands of a zombie hoard. How he was the sole survivor because under his creeperskin blankets, they mistook him for another mob.

Gavin looks away again.

“I’ll be fine,” he mutters. “It’s you who should be worried. You really think you can survive out there on your own? Look at us now, hiding in a bloody hole in the ground because it’s dark out.”

“I can take care of myself,” Geoff snaps, and Gavin looks at him for a long moment, and every argument from the last week rings in Geoff’s ears. There’s something despicably close to _pity_ in his eyes. _You’re good, Geoff, but you’re not that good - it’s a fool’s dream - you’re going to get us both killed if you insist on going off like this._

_What’s wrong with where we are now?_

“Night time’s dangerous,” is all Gavin says finally, and turns away, fangs worrying at his bottom lip until Geoff worries he’ll draw blood.

Geoff’s the one to stare at him now, hunched and scared in the flickering torchlight. His heart tugs and for a moment, for a moment he wants to say _I won’t leave, not without you,_ he wants to try this _again_ \- but he swallows it down, something too proud rising up in his chest.

“I’ll keep watch,” he mutters. “You should sleep.”

“You know I can’t,” Gavin whispers back, glancing out at the darkness, the shifting shadows of the beasts that emerge at night. He draws his knees up to his chest and rests his head on them, and again Geoff wants to pull him close, but he can’t. They sit in a long silence instead.

-

The spiders attack not even an hour later.

The patter of light feet against the dirt is all the warning Geoff gets. Gavin’s ears are already pricking up; he uncurls and springs to his feet just as the black creatures swarm out from the dark cavern beyond the cave.

There are more of them than Geoff’s ever seen in one spot before - a mass of shifting black fur, glinting eyes and sharp fangs. With a shriek he scuttles to his feet and draws his sword - Gavin’s already pulls his bow out, flinging his cloak back to get at his quiver, tail lashing with fear. He fires and takes down one spider in a single shot, but the others just pour over it.

“There’s too many!” Geoff yells, only to break off as one of them springs at him. He swings his sword and cuts two of its legs off before retreating back towards the cave entrance. “We have to get out of here!”

Gavin’s already sprinting for the entrance, Geoff racing after him. They pelt through the streets, squinting in the dim light of the moon, and it’s only when he nearly trips over a tree root in the dark for the third time that he realises he forgot to grab the torch before leaving.

“Shit,” he hisses, and glances over his shoulder. The spiders have scattered, but a few of them are still in pursuit, and Geoff flinches when an arrow whistles past his shoulder and buries itself in the head of the nearest one. He spins to see Gavin lowering his bow. Their eyes meet, then Gavin grabs his arm and yanks him abruptly sideways. They crash through more undergrowth before finally slamming to a halt against a tree where they pause, pressed hard against the trunk, sharp ragged bark digging into Geoff’s back and Gavin tucked against his front. He can feel the other man’s chest heaving against his, and how he’s trembling as the adrenaline runs high in his blood.

For a moment, he thinks back to the night they first met. Three years ago, now - a full moon, like tonight, and a forest full of monsters, and how _certain_ he was that he was going to die. He’d slammed into Gavin unexpectedly. The lad’s creeperskin cloak had blended into the tree and Geoff hadn’t even realised someone else was already hiding there. That’d been a confusing time - thinking he was a creeper first, then realising he was a boy of some sort, then mistakenly thinking he was unable to talk (three days of Geoff making a fool of himself trying to teach him words before Gavin revealed he could in fact speak all along).

It’d been _nice_ , not to be alone in the village, to have someone to talk to and go adventuring with. But now, as they find themselves right back where they started - Geoff only feels a burning shame as the panic and fear subside.

_God. You nearly died back there._

_Just like he said - you can’t even survive one night out here. And you want to leave the village, to build your own fucking city? You’ll be dead within a day. Pathetic._

_Don’t say that. You would’ve been fine if he hadn’t insisted on going in that fucking cave._

_You would’ve been fine._

_You would’ve._

 

* * *

 

**iii. apart**

“Nearly got us both killed,” Geoff snaps. His fingers dig hard into Gavin’s arms as he shakes him, roughly. Dig in like he almost wants it to hurt - like he doesn’t want him to go.

It’s quiet now. The monsters have passed - but in the distance he can hear the faint moan of zombies, carrying on the wind. It’s cold, colder even than it was before, and he’s angry and scared.

Gavin stares at him, eyes indignantly huge.

“ _Me_?” he cries.

“Yes,” Geoff hisses, “That fucking _cave_ , insisting on going on there-”

“We’d have been no safer out here!”

“You don’t know that,” Geoff spits, but Gavin tosses his head.

“I do,” he says, “That’s just how the world _is_. It’s dangerous and no one can survive outside the walls on their own - and you’re stupid to think that you can! Don’t blame me just because you’re _embarrassed_ that you weren’t able to just gallivant off into the night like some sort of superhuman.” He starts to laugh, harshly. “And you want to run off and build your own commune - like, what the hell, Geoff, who do you think you are? Some kind of god?”

Every word seems to make Geoff’s blood freeze a little more.

“I’m not a stupid little creeper like you,” he says finally. “I would have been fine on my own. I shouldn't have followed you in there - I could’ve died, and it would have been your fucking fault!”

Gavin flinches back, and with a pang Geoff remembers the nights the other man wakes up in tears, his family gone and village burned to the ground and the guilt of being the only one left - before he can say anything, Gavin yanks his arm away. His eyes are blazing. Geoff’s never seen him so angry.

“Guess I’ll just go then,” Gavin spits. “You want to be alone, then be alone - just like before!”

He whirls on his heel and has vanished into the night before Geoff can stop him, his cloak running through Geoff’s fingers like water when Geoff tries to grab at it. Three years dissolved in an instant and Geoff-

Geoff-

Geoff wants to call after him, wants to say _stop_ and _wait_ and _we can fix this_ and _don’t go, I love you, it can’t end like this_ and _I want you to come with me. I don’t want you to be scared. I don’t want to be scared. Alone I can’t do it._

_Together we can._

He takes a deep breath. As soon as Gavin vanished his own anger seemed to evaporate, leaving him empty, empty, empty. The fight seems pointless now, his own words callous and needlessly cruel.

“Gavin,” he calls, but his voice comes out so soft that even Geoff can barely hear it. Any louder and the monsters may come.

No - Gavin’s disappeared into the night, fast as a shadow, and for a moment Geoff thinks that this could be it. This was just another chapter in his life that’ll fade into memory like the time he spent in his hometown, like his solitary travels in a boat across the endless ocean. Like the four years he spent in that village alone, longing, _dreaming_ to go out and make his own mark on the world.

If he turns now, and walks away - that’s what will happen. Like a ghost, Gavin will just slip out of his life. Three years brought to a short drop and a sudden stop.

He can’t do it.

Not with Gavin, never with Gavin. This whole night’s felt like a dream so far, like every decision he made he was watching through a mirror, some alternate reality - how things will be if he lets this idea of his divide them.

But this, this is a moment of perfect clarity. He loves Gavin - he won’t let him go, not like this.

“Gavin!” he calls, louder now, and runs after him.

-

Gavin’s sitting on the edge of a cliff. His cloak makes him blend into his surroundings like a shadow. It seems instinct pulled him out of the forest, but there’s still no clear way home, just a sharp decline towards the coast and more tangled bush leading in every other direction.

Geoff approaches him slowly, and Gavin doesn’t look up. It’s so cold now that Gavin’s shivering, huddled with his knees drawn up and his tail curled around his ankles. He doesn’t move even when Geoff comes and sits next to him and presses their shoulders together, trying to keep warm.

There are zombies down on the beach below. He can see them, swaying dark figures shuffling along the water’s edge, leaving a tangled mess of footprints behind them.

“They can’t get us up here,” Gavin says, his voice low and flat. “Besides, the moon is bright. It will be morning soon, anyway. Night never lasts long.”

“You’re right,” Geoff murmurs.

Gavin turns his face away - then abruptly swings it back to look at Geoff.

“Why’d you come, anyway?” he asks, voice tight and _hurt_. It makes more guilt well in Geoff’s chest. “Thought you wanted to be alone.”

“No,” Geoff admits, and touches his arm, gently. “I want to un-break up with you.”

“You mean get back together,” Gavin says.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

He looks at Geoff again, and suddenly he feels terribly awkward at the thought of how _childish_ all this has been - the weeks of bickering, the storming off into a forest, his outburst back there. He’s just - grown restless and desperate and _frustrated,_ but that’s no excuse. Not to take it out on Gavin.

“Because I fucked up,” he says, and lets his hand run down Gavin’s arm to catch his and tangle their fingers together. Gavin doesn’t pull away. “I got so wrapped up in wanting to leave the village, in trying to convince you to come, that I didn’t bother paying attention to why you were so scared. I just got mad and I let it blind me and I’m so fucking sorry, Gavin. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It’s not your fault we got lost, it’s mine.”

“I led us into that cave,” Gavin points out, and bites his lip. “Geoff… I fucked up too. I know how much you’ve always wanted this - to go out and build your own city in the wilderness, your own castle, and I - I was holding you back-“

“No you weren’t,” Geoff begins fiercely, but Gavin shakes his head.

“I was. Not deliberately, but I spent so long out there on my own that I… I finally felt safe here with you. The thought of going back out there is terrifying.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

“I should’ve told you that instead of just shutting you down every time you said you wanted to leave. But Geoff - I don’t want to live in the village alone without you. Not even if it’s safe. It wouldn’t be the same.”

“I don’t want to go build without you,” Geoff replies, “Even if it is my dream.”

They sit for a long moment, clutching each other’s hands, still unsure what they’re going to do but with the solace, at least, they they don’t want to do whatever it is alone. After a moment Gavin shuffles closer and rests his head on Geoff’s shoulder, a warm, comforting weight. Geoff wraps an arm around him and feels him slowly stop shivering. 

The sun is rising.

The sky is slowly lightening, and a thin sliver of gold appears at the horizon. It grows - and grows, warm arms stretching through the clouds towards them. On the beach, the zombies ignite. Down below they look like a cluster of candles, like the memorials people leave all over their world, at the bases of trees where their friends have fallen to the dangers of the night.

It’s beautiful. Geoff hasn’t seen the sun rise in a long, long time. Usually they are too scared to be out at night- they sleep it away tucked safely indoors. Now it transfixes him - it feels like a new breath, a new hope, an exhilarating reminder that they _lived_. That they _can_ live.

He looks over at Gavin and finds him staring, too, his catlike pupils narrowed to slits, the golden shimmer of the ocean reflected in his green eyes. The sun’s rays reach them then, a wash of warmth that has Gavin reaching out to feel the sunlight, turning his hands to let every inch of them feel the golden glow.

“Haven’t seen this in a while,” Geoff croaks, and Gavin turns to him.

“I used to see it every morning,” he whispers, and scoffs out a laugh. “Was practically nocturnal. I could never sleep at night, not with those things around. The sun reminded me that I was safe and I’d climb into a tree and nap in the warm.” He looks down, twisting his cloak around his fingers. “It wasn’t all bad. Before. A lot of it was, but not everything.”

“We’ll build new walls to keep them out,” Geoff says. “We can still head back to the village at night, until they’re done. I won’t lie - it’ll be hard at first, and dangerous, but we can make it work. We’ll be safe.”

Gavin doesn’t answer, and Geoff doesn’t push - knows he’ll need time to think about it - for now, he squeezes Gavin’s hand and turns back to watch the sunrise.

 

* * *

 

**iv. dawn**

Geoff stares down at the map in his hands, the carefully marked ‘X’ several hours away from the village. It looks silly, like there should be buried treasure, except he knows there’s nothing there. Nothing but an empty canvas. He’s so excited he can barely think.

Gavin comes up behind him, his chin hooking over Geoff’s shoulder as he presses against his back, staring down at the map with him.

“Excited?” he asks.

Geoff gives a small smile.

“I used to live near the beach, growing up,” he says, thinking back to those sunny days in his coastal home town. As a child, I’d build sand castles - huge ones, big as dicks.”

“That simile depends heavily on whose dick you’re referring to.”

“Mine, of course,” Geoff says, rolling his eyes, and relishes Gavin’s breathy giggle. “Seriously, though - they were enormous, extravagant things. Used to love it. But the sea always washed them away.”

“Not this time,” Gavin says, oddly serious, and Geoff reaches up to squeeze his hand, twisting to face him.

“You have a dream as a child?” he asks. “Something you always wanted to do?”

Gavin shakes his head, a wistful smile tugging at his lips.

“Not really,” he admits. “But hey - where I am now is pretty good.”

Geoff eyes him carefully - but Gavin looks happy, and when Geoff cups his cheek and rubs his thumb against the sensitive skin just behind his ear, he leans into it, his eyes slitting shut for a moment.

“You sure you’re good with this?” Geoff whispers.

“We can come back at night,” Gavin begins.

“For the first few weeks, yeah. Then it might become too hard. That alright?”

“I’ll be okay,” Gavin says, and sounds like he believes it. “I feel safe with you.”

That makes Geoff smile; he leans in and presses his forehead to Gavin’s. It’s comforting, the other man’s breath against his lips, his warm smile, his hands gripping at Geoff’s jacket tightly.

“We’re really doing this, then,” he says, and Gavin laughs.

“I’m excited, too!”

“Good,” Geoff murmurs, and feels like the sun’s in his chest, now. It’s the right choice this time, he can feel it in his bones. A village, for him, and Gavin, and others like them. Travellers and miners and warriors - those who speak their same tongue.

They’ll be okay together, he knows, and he leans in and kisses Gavin. It’s as familiar as three years together, as surviving, as the sunrise, as _home_ , and Gavin’s smiling when they pull apart. He doesn’t look scared.

“Let’s go then,” Geoff says, and Gavin squeezes his hand and nods.

They get in their minecart, squashing in between the huge bags of supplies. There’ll be more to gather later, but they’ve worked hard for this - wood and stone and redstone and pickaxes bumping between them as they cram themselves in. Geoff reaches out and pulls the lever and they’re _off_ , on a rushing redstone course towards the ocean, out of the village, rattling down steep hills and swooping back up inclines towards their next adventure, the wind whipping through his hair. He looks over at Gavin and the other man’s grinning, all his sharp teeth bared like he’s ready to take on the world.

Of course they’re scared. They’d be fools not to be, heading out into the unknown like this. But the sun’s rising, as it will every morning, and Geoff knows, as long as they’re together - they’ll make this work.


End file.
